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The Section 16 Pit is located south of the East and West Pits. Mining in the majority of the <br />Section 16 Pit was completed between 1993 and 2002. A 44 acre extension of the Section 16 Pit <br />(referred to as the X-Pod area) was permitted through Technical Revision 65 (approved on 29 <br />June 2007). The X-Pod area was mined from 2007-2010. The northern boundary of the Section <br />16 Pit merged with the East Pit and will eventually merge with the expanding West Pit. Mining <br />of the Section 16 Pit was of the "X" coal seam only. Mining was from east to west, but was <br />reoriented from north to south for the final strip in the area. With the approval of the X-Pod area, <br />the Section 16 Pit will also merge with the South Taylor Pit. <br />Colowyo is continuing to perform reclaim activities in the East Pit, West Pit and Section 16 Pit. <br />Reclamation in the East Pit is expected to conclude in 2016, in the West Pit in 2018 and in the <br />Section 16 Pit in 2021. <br />Permit, Performance Bond, and Bond Release History <br />The permanent program mining permit was issued on 4 November 1982. Five successive permit <br />renewals have been approved subsequent to the initial permanent program permit approval; the <br />most recent, Permit Renewal No. 5, was issued 14 September 2009, for a permit term that will <br />expire 5 November 2012. The Division currently holds a reclamation bond, in the form of three <br />corporate sureties, in the amount of $83,156,939.00 <br />The Colowyo Coal Company applied for three previous bond releases: SL-O1 was a Phase 1/I1 Bond <br />Release submitted on 2 June 1987 and approved on 8 October 1987; SL-02 was a Phase I Bond <br />Release submitted on 25 September 1997 and approved on 27 April 1998; and SL-03 was a Phase 11 <br />Bond Release submitted on 26 September 2000 and approved on 15 August 2001. See Figure 4 for <br />the location of the previous bond releases at the Colowyo Mine. See Table 2 for the previous bond <br />release acreages and Table 3 for the previous bond release amounts. <br />SL-04 Phase I/II Bond Release Application <br />The SL-04 application was received by the Division on 15 June 2010 and deemed complete on 12 <br />August 2010. Colowyo published notice of the bond release application in the Craig Daily Press <br />once weekly for four consecutive weeks, beginning 2 July 2010 and ending on 23 July 2010. <br />Colowyo notified land owners within and adjacent to the mine permit area, the Office of Surface <br />Mining (OSM), the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and other interested parties of the <br />application for bond release, as required by Rule 3.03.2(1). No comments, written objections or <br />requests for an informal conference regarding the bond release application were received by the <br />Division. <br />A bond release inspection was scheduled and conducted on 24-27 August 2010. The site inspection <br />was conducted in accordance with Rule 3.03.2(2). Jim Stark, Sandy Brown and Dan Mathews of <br />the Division; Kurtis Blunt and Jennifer Sekulski of Colowyo; and Jesse Dillon and Steve Viert of <br />Cedar Creek Associates (a Colowyo consultant) attended the inspection. No representatives <br />from BLM, OSM or any other Federal, State or Local agency and none of the land owners of <br />Proposed Decision and Findings of Compliance 2 May 2011 <br />Partial Phase 1/11 Bond Release SL-04 Page 3